Underdressed engineers and other news of the job board industry

January 20, 2015
JobBoardDoctor

We’re already into 2015, and as you might guess, the job board and online recruiting industry is staying busy.

Dice goes for billboards: In a back to the future moment, Dice is running 50 foot billboards in Silicon Valley featuring ‘real’ engineers in their underwear. “We wanted to make people smile when they were stuck in traffic,” said Natasha Raja, vice president of marketing for Dice. The first time Dice used billboards? 1998. In other news, Dice has added Open Web to its finance vertical through eFinancialCareers.
Hired picks up $15M: Hired has expanded beyond computer science into sales and raised $15 million in Series B funding to help it rapidly expand on a global scale. Given the demand for sales talent, this is a smart move.
Indeed doubles down on Europe: Indeed.com plans to double its workforce in Europe by the end of 2015 as part of a “substantial” recruitment drive. Paul D’Arcy, a senior vice president at the website, told IBTimes UK that he expects the company’s headcount across the region to grow from around 250 to up to 500 by the end of year. Impressive. In other news, Indeed is planning to increase its Austin, TX-based workforce by 300.
TruckDrivingJobs is acquired: Trucking Unlimited, a trucking industry recruiting firm, has acquired TruckDrivingJobs.com for $800,000. This sector of the industry continues to grow.
RealMatch powers more newspaper sites: RealMatch has launched job sites representing 30 digital newspaper properties in partnership with BH Media Group, a Berkshire Hathaway company. BH Media Group has operations in Nebraska, Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
Glassdoor raises $70M: Glassdoor announced it has raised $70 million in new financing led by Google Capital and existing investor Tiger Global Management with participation by existing investors Battery Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures. To date, Glassdoor has raised approximately $160 million in financing. In other news, the company has just launched a site for Germany.
UK job boards feeling frisky: Research by U.K. recruitment marketing specialists GKS Associates shows 95% of job boards are planning to hike prices in 2015. Of the 40 job boards that completed the survey, 38 were planning rises above the rate of inflation with the average increase being 7%. The highest was 20%.
Facebook is dipping its toe in the water (again): Facebook has released (in a very limited fashion) Facebook at Work, which looks and operates a lot like regular Facebook — there’s a News Feed, messaging and groups — but your network is limited to your colleagues instead of your friends and family. There is no timetable for Facebook at Work’s launch, a spokesperson said.
A matching job site launches: Jobspotting pulls in jobs from over 20 job boards, including Xing, Monster, StepStone, Angellist, and London Startup Jobs. Currently it is limited to Marketing and IT jobs in the UK and Germany. This site (and iOS app) puts a modern search interface on top of results from third-party recruitment sites, and tries to learn your preferences via its algorithm.
Apploi picks up $7M: Apploi is designed as a sort of central system for applications as well as a way to share videos of personality and skills, and is aimed at the service industry. The company raised $7,407,800 in Series A with Andrew Heyer, CEO of Mistral Equity Partners, Simon Jacobs, former owner of Hale and Hearty, among others. The company offers a mobile and browser-based application process and also sets up hiring kiosks in malls and busy areas where multiple employers can grab walking traffic.
BirdDog grows: BirdDog said last week that it saw its annual revenues grow 53 percent during the 2014 fiscal year, the largest year-over-year growth in its history. BirdDog also said it has added 27 new employees and doubled its office space.The news comes after a good year for BirdDog, which also completed a $4 million funding round in 2014.